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The best movies for home theater surround sound

248K views 177 replies 92 participants last post by  Drake Frosts 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I am looking for the best movies for surround sound and visual effects. After reaching 100 I will take a vote for the top 10 to 20.

What are some of your favorite movies for surround sound and visual effects?

For those of you reading this for the first time these are the suggested titles. I will add when new titles are suggested.

1. The Incredibles
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Gladiator
4. Transformers
5. Band of Brothers
6. The Grudge movies (scary)
7. Flyboys "Dogfights scene"
8. Heat
9. Titan AE
10. War of the Worlds
11. Star Wars 4,5,6
12. Moulan Rouge
13. Apollo 13
14. Transformers
15. Twister
16. Titan AE
17. We Were Soldiers
18. U-571
19. Superman: The Movie
20. Master and Commander
21. Saving Private Ryan
22. remastered version of Top Gun
23. Four Brothers
24. Forest Gump, jungle war scene
25. Master and Commander
26. Open Range
27. Matrix
28. Spiderman 3
29. Silent Hill (scary)
30. Ratatouille "old lady with shotgun"
31. Gladiator
32. Matrix trilogy
33. Monsters Inc.
34. Lord of the Rings trilogy
35. Pearl Harbor
36. Titanic
37. The Rock
38. Independence Day
39. Outbreak
40. Deep Blue Sea
41. V for Vendetta
42. 300
43. Gladiator
44. Casino Royale
45. Terminator 2
46. Fellowship of the Rings
47. House of Flying Daggers
48. Fifth Element
49. Apocalypto
50. Event Horizon
51. Live Free Die Hard
52. X-Men 3
53. Day after Tomorrow
54. Ice Age
55. Star Wars Episode I "Pod Race"
 
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#3 ·
That's not easy to find the best movies for surround sound because there are so many !!!

Here are some of those I use to test my surround system:
- The Incredibles
- Master and Commander,
- Star Wars Pod Race
- Saving Private Ryan
- Open Range
- Gladiator
- Matrix
 
#9 ·
There is a very good old movie that I've used for many years for testing changes made to the audio side.. It has excellent surround sound and covers just about every square metre of the room..
It's one of the few movies that projects sound right up to your face..Infact you can almost believe that you're going to drown!!
Good thunder and lightning and roaring sounds with some pretty dramatic explosions thrown in as well..
The movie is Deep Blue Sea...but don't watch it if "Jaws" turned your stomach!!
 
#13 ·
"Superman: The Movie". A very lively surround track and the opening credits are among the
best of all time. I saw it in 70mm at the Loews Astor Plaza and the audience applauded the
credits zooming from the front speakers to the back. The story goes that they had a different
credits sequence until they hired a company to do the trailer with the zooming titles which
were so effective, they had them redo the title sequence in the same technique.
 
#17 ·
I can't believe it .

Nobody mentioned U-571 ... deep charge explosions.
The Depth Charges scene is probably the most explosions per second you'll get in any movie.

The second scene (Omaha Beach) in Saving Private Ryan is still one of the best to date, although not for the weak of stomach.

The Matrix also has some good show off scenes and the techno trance music plays though nice. The scene where Neo fights Morpheus in the Dojo, where Morpheus explains the Matrix and the Lobby shootout up to the Helicopter crash is great.

Terminator 2 has some nice explosions with deep bass when Arnie is firing the mini gun then launching grenades at the squad cars from the Cyberdyne building.

The remastered Top Gun "Special Collector's Edition" or the HDDVD has some impressive soundtrack and sound effects. The tomcat flybys are pretty neat and the movies intro is a nice demo to impress your friends.

LOTR the Fellowship of the Rings The Bridge of Kazha Doom scene is one of my stand bys. There is plenty of low bass, great surround and visuals. There are many others like that in all three of the Trilogy, but that one stands out to me.

I could go on and on. There are hundreds of good titles out there. :T
 
#16 ·
I've always like Gladiator and Master and Commander for cherry picking certain scenes.

My newest fav is the new James Bond movie Casino Royale on Blu-ray using its uncompressed PCM 5.1 track, the opening scene is really alive with detail. The subtleties when he's sitting in the office ready to make kill #2, then raging gunfire that turns into the theme music. It's really a treat to behold.
 
G
#18 ·
I haven't even seen the whole movie, but the gunfight scene in the house in "Four Brothers" in a demo disc of mine shakes my house--talk about an intense demo. It will make your friends excuse themselves to change their pants.:raped:
 
#25 ·
White noise was pretty scary sound wise, but sucked otherwise.

There are a lot and I can't remember all of them, but 300 rocks some pretty good sound. I only have an IMAX theater to compare to, but it makes my system work pretty hard, especially with the epic soundtrack. Sweet movie. If I hit the powerball, Im gonna build an IMAX theater and watch 300 everyday after work.
 
#28 ·
I can't remember, it's been a while. I'll check it out.

BTW, I was setting up my new subwoofer today, a SVS PB12/2 and tried the infamous 'Jurassic lunch' clip from Jurassic Park III... It literally knocked my breath out, what a wild subwoofer. I'm definetly getting another one! ;)
 
G
#29 ·
I can't remember, it's been a while. I'll check it out.

BTW, I was setting up my new subwoofer today, a SVS PB12/2 and tried the infamous 'Jurassic lunch' clip from Jurassic Park III... It literally knocked my breath out, what a wild sobwoofer. I'm definetly getting another one! ;)
I actually haven't tried that scene out yet but if it's like the TRex scene in the first one it should pressurize the room nicely, even with my humble PB10-NSD :bigsmile:
 
#30 ·
You should try it, it's truly reference when it comes to low-end oomph. Two huge lizards really go at each other, stomping around. You feel the weight of the animals real nice. Really add another dimension to the experience.
 
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